Take one Magnum photographer, hundreds of beautiful people on a beach bathed in glorious honey-hued light, some ruminative voiceover, finish with frantic carnival scenes in slow-mo. Serve with caipirinha and rampant jealousy.

During Rio's carnival, large groups of suburban gang members - the "bate-bolas" (ball-knockers) - congregate in the city for a huge costume challenge. We think that's what this is, anyway.

Superb footage from northeastern Brazil of a Meracatu group - a "fusion of pre-existing forms of Carnival revelry", of Afro-indigenous origin. Startling stuff, albeit mildly ruined by an odd heavy metal soundtrack. Headphones out for this one, perhaps.

Those tireless distractors at YouTube are heading to Rio and Salvador to set up camp for the week, streaming street-side coverage from different parts of the city. They've even set up a whole new channel for the stuff, at YouTube.com/carnaval. There's some warm up videos on the site already - the Guardian Travel desk have watched the above video 14 times, and have perfected the moves.